Tag: spirituality

My friends, we are on the cusp of 2019. It is not a new thing to be thinking of what we want to change, manifest, or release. This is a wired into us. Before the modern world, the people knew that the wheel was turning. The twelve days of Christmas was originally the twelve days of Yule and it ended on the 1st of the month, right when the wheel turns. It is the thick of winter, a time of deep contemplation. A bright new beginning. A time of rebirth from the solstice when the sun begins to shine a bit more each day. The light in us grows ever more as well.

My work is as an herbalist, a clairvoyant reader, medical intuitive, and spiritual guide. This is an unusual time. Most everyone is in great transformation. It is as if the universe is plucking things right out of people’s hands; relationships, jobs, identities. Our worst traits are being exposed to the sun in order to change. Our paths are being laid out in drastic form. It is best if we just release.

We are in a time of great change. We are in a time when the young have more intuitive and sensitive people among them and they are struggling to understand why they are the way they are and are looking for mentors…or masking medications. We are all being called to find our path. To release our bad habits, fears, and ego and to embrace a better sense of self. 2019 may be a miraculous year for us all. There are whispers and questions in the air that need answers.

What relationships cause you pain and stress?

Are your food choices compassionate, healthy, and karmically sound?

Are you honoring your body with movement?

Are you honoring your spirituality by being open to listen to truths being taught to you? Are you taking time to honor that which you believe in?

Are you emotionally taking wellness breaks?

Are you working yourself every minute of the day for the car payment, for the dishes to be done, for the endless errands and hours at work to be done?

Your passions and desires are the road map to your destiny. What do you dream of? What does your life look like in your ideal world? Who are you with? What do you do?

What fears need to be released? What negative habits need to be let go of? What regrets do you carry? Forgiving yourself is as important as forgiving others.

The nights were dark and starry. Cold as the winds blew and the people of the time stayed indoors, lamps and fires lit, families gathered in the dimly lit homes of the land.

The solstice was coming soon and across the lands the sun would shine a bit more each day. This was a cause for great celebration among the people. Twenty-thousand plus years before organized religion the families of the ancient lands bundled up in furs and lit lanterns and went from house to house bringing light and song to their neighbors.

The spring prior the God and the Goddess conceived and on December 21st the Goddess would give birth to the son of God, the sun. The Holly King and his reindeer came around with gifts in exchange for a bowl of porridge. And during the twelve days of Yule fires were lit, celebrations were had, and light was spread by all.

The newer religions of today borrow the same concepts of celebration and light. What can we do today to celebrate Yuletide? Spread light around you. Compliment strangers and friends. Check on elders and see if they are well fed and if they need company. Invite folks into your home for a warm pot of soup and a game of cards. Give simple, handmade gifts. Set up twinkly lights and a Yule tree. Sing and rejoice for the Sun God is coming and will brighten each day.

Long before the church said it was evil and before Hollywood and candy companies made a fortune, a simple holiday took place on October 31st. The third and final harvest festival and the eve of the new year called Samhain (pronounced Sow-en).

The hard work of farming, hunting, and filling the larder was through as the winds changed, the sun went to bed earlier and earlier, and dark settled upon the land. It was an inevitable time for introspection, remembering those that had passed on throughout the year, and reminiscing around the table with mead and friends. A million miles from the Celtic homes, the Day of the Dead was being celebrated in Mexico.

There was a time when everyone was attuned to the spiritual energies around us. It was nothing weird or scary, it just was. October 31st is when the veil between the worlds is thinnest. Our deceased loved ones can always hear us but at this time of year, sometimes, they can reach us and they can certainly hear us better.

For children, sugar rushes and the perfect costume steal the holiday. I wanted Maryjane to know what the real holiday was all about. I simplified the ceremony so that my four year old granddaughter could understand. Of course children innately know these things. I had her draw pictures of the people or animals she wanted to talk to. She wrote adorable letters instead. One to Anakan the snake, one to Grandma Kat, and one to Grant, her mom’s boyfriend’s brother who died a few years ago in a car accident.

We decorated the alter (the wood stove) with a beautiful nest we had found, a feather, and a butterfly that has passed away on my porch. Her letters and a bell were really all we needed.

She chose a candle and so did I. I chose pink for love and she did the same. We thought of our people that we loved and missed (for me; Nancy, Kat, Great-Grandma, my Uncles…) and lit the candles. We looked at pictures. She sat in her little chair and read the letters to them and listened.

By incorporating the original spiritual belief systems and the nature based holidays, children learn connection to all things and great empathy. Children naturally understand. Giving them a basis to work with as they get older to celebrate and remember will help them create their own traditions. It helps children learn to deal with grief and I know Kat, Anikan, and Grant enjoyed hearing that little voice.

Can I be everything? Can I recognize the ribbons of similarity running through each divine celebration and realize they are all intertwined and so similar that our entire life is a joyous journey overlooked by the Divine? Can I be Amish and Catholic and Jewish and Messianic and Methodist? Can I be Buddhist and Hindu and Wiccan and myself? Can I celebrate Hanukkah, and Beltane, and Christmas too?

Love God, Love ourselves. Are those not our only commandments? Those can certainly be taken from meditation to maypole. Those that use their books of designated scripture to pick out what they wish and translate it how they wish, to feel pity on others and make themselves feel better are sadly stuck in chains. That the One created all people and traditions and colors and life is bigger than we can fathom. I breathe in the excitement of all this.

I love all people to a point of heartbreak sometimes. I love to read about different cultures, different foods, different religious celebrations, different lives, and the knowledge that our lives are all simply intertwined in much bigger forces makes us all one enormous family.

Just as I am Irish, English, Scottish, Dutch, Cherokee, German, Black French, and who knows what else, I am every religion too as I embrace the ways the world celebrates. I have had amazing physical healings, have seen miracles beyond description, and my faith is deeply rooted. I am as comfortable in an American Indian ceremony as I am going to confession as I am remembering my loved ones at Samhain. So many beautiful traditions and ways to worship. The world is not black and white but rather grey. No, not even grey, but a kaleidoscope of color. Celebrate.

What would you say is the most powerful thing on earth? Water? Money? Love? I would say prayer. I am deeply spiritual/religious, whatever you want to call it, but I cringe when people start talking to me about their religion, their opinions, what the Bible says by their interpretation, how many people are converting…blah, blah, blah. I kind of tune them out. This is about something much more important, powerful, and life changing and something we could all incorporate more into our lives in the new year. You read about my healings and I am a firm believer in God. I have no choice. And I wish that everyone could experience the types of miracles I have seen. Perhaps everyone has, they just can’t see them. But, prayer can lift our spirits, give us a sense of community, well being, security, and can produce miracles.

My son asked why he can’t just pray that his wife would come back. Because she has free will, I explained. But God can help heal his heart, give him strength, and comfort. Prayer is not about feeling more powerful or more superior to other people, it’s about life.

My mother taught me when I was young how to pray. Don’t start with gimme this and gimme that, she said. Start with thanksgiving. Be grateful and thank God for all of your blessings. Then ask for forgiveness for the things that have inevitably been done since we are, after all, human. This is not to avoid hell, this is to help be aware of what we may be doing that hurts others or ourselves. Then humbly ask your intentions.

God can and will help anything come into being that you wish. So, be careful what you ask for. This homestead is cold but it is what I asked for! We cannot make someone love us or make someone stay on earth if their journey here is over. But we can receive comfort, strength, guidance, guardian angels, friends, teachers, and a companion if we trust God and not ourselves. Notice that you have always been provided for. I love how my friend, Lisa, put it; He’s a 11:59 God! We get the money to pay bills and the wisdom to handle things at the last minute! But it always comes!

I love in the movie, “Taladega Nights”, where they keep praying to the baby Jesus. It cracks me up. But we all view the Creator in a different way. I know my soul is connected to everyone else’s and everything, from trees to owls, and we are all one with the Source of Life and that we all go right back to that powerful Source when we are done here. We have all had experiences with the supernatural so we know that spirits of the deceased are still around.

There are often misunderstandings regarding the saints in the Catholic Church and in praying to spirits in nature. These are not gods, and no one thinks they are! They are helpers who will pray for us and the more prayers the better! The reason we light candles during prayer is to keep the prayer going. Doug and I have experienced that the candle goes out when the prayer is answered. Just look around and take note of your life and surroundings and you too will be astounded and mystified.

I don’t just pray before meals or before bed or just when I need something. I chatter with God all day. Try it, it will change your life. We should pray for each other as well. There is great power in that. Let’s start a prayer circle. Write in the comments what you would like to be prayed for (or email me personally at Katie@gardenfairyherbal.com) and let’s all pray for each other. You will see amazing things happen in your life.

Will you pray for my son, Andrew, as his wife left after only five months of marriage and left him broken hearted?

Will you pray for my cousin, Linda, as she mourns her husband who just ended his journey here on earth quite suddenly?

Will you also pray for guidance and protection over my family?

What can I pray for you?

Wishing you all peace and great joy during this beautiful season and into the new year.

Katie Lynn Sanders is an urban Farmgirl, writer, Mama, Grammie, and herbalist. Katie lives with her husband, Gandalf the Great Pyrenees, kitties, and seven chickens in a hundred year old adobe in Pueblo. She is the writer of two blogs; FarmgirlSchool.org and DancingWithFeathers.com. You can find all of Katie's books at www.AuthorKatieSanders.com